Welcome. I am an author and freelance columnist based in London, Ontario. Posted below is a selection of my recent columns as well as a link to my book, Against Judicial Activism: The Decline of Freedom and Democracy in Canada (McGill-Queen's University Press: 2006).

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Further evidence of a clash of civilizations

In my column, "Elmasry exemplifies the clash of civilizations," The London Free Press (February 21, 2006), I quoted Mohammad Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, as having recently described the Taliban terrorists of Afghanistan as “a popular movement with strong grassroots support.” With reference to the Canadian troops now serving in Afghanistan, he added: “many Afghans … perceive Americans -- and the Canadians who follow them -- as hostile foreigners occupying their country. Is it any surprise that some turn to suicide bombing?”

In light of the subsequent terrorist attacks on Canadian troops in Afghanistan, one might have supposed that Elmasry would want to clarify his views on Taliban suicide bombers. But no. In a rebuttal published in The Free Press on Wednesday (see below), he simply denounces me as "anti-Islam" for criticizing him.

I think you will also find interesting the revealing exchange of emails I have had over this same column of mine with Yahya Abdul Rahman. He is a Canadian convert to Islam, otherwise known as Shawn Smith, who edits the Montreal Muslim News.

Leishman did not, for example, explain to LFP readers why Canadiansshouldn't use our country's enlightened hate laws in response to thedeliberately targeted republication of those offending Danish cartoons.Isn't the law meant to treat all citizens -- including minorities --equally? Isn't the law supposed to identify anti-Islam hate literatureas clearly as it does anti-Semitic propaganda?

Canada is the only Western country to have such laws on the books, butif they aren't applied with the equality inherent in our constitutionalrights and freedoms, we might as well abolish this legislation altogether.

Leishman makes matters worse by continuing to twist quotations ofmine out of context, or omitting salient facts that he knows but choosesto ignore whenever they challenge his biases. He failed once again toacknowledge that many Israeli prime ministers and IRA leaders were oncedesignated as terrorists by the British, as was Nelson Mandela by theformer Apartheid South African government. Yet many went on to becomethe peacemakers of the next generation, some even winning Nobel prizesfor their efforts. This could well be the case for Hamas, if it is givena fair chance to govern.

As for the Taliban, their popularity as a grassroots organization andtheir influence among Afghani youth does not mean that we Canadiansshould agree with them. It does not mean either that Canadians shouldrisk their lives to fight them in their homeland.

I usually do not answer my critics, but Leishman did such a poor job ofunderstanding the issues that I had to respond, for the sake of theLondon Free Press readers.

Mohamed Elmasry is national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress in Waterloo.

In 1996, Prof. Samuel P. Huntington of HarvardUniversity predicted in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order that “the single and most dangerous dimension of the emerging global politics would be conflict between groups from differing civilizations.”

What more dangerous dimension of the emerging global politics do you apprehend?

Also, what is your opinion on the views expressed by Elmasry cited in my column?

Best wishes,

Rory

Raman's reply:

Thanks for responding.

It seems to me you were more interested in discrediting Dr. Elmasrythan commenting honestly or giving any credit to the numerous attemptsby the Muslim community to launch a dialogue on the cartoon issue. Andthere is a lot of effort taking place on this front. See for examplethe efforts of the Muslim Council of Montreal:http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net/goodnews.htm

You seem to have left the impression that Dr. Elmsary is thepersonification of the Muslim community here in Canada and that hisviews on one issue categorize or label him in all other issues alsoand, by extension, the Muslim community in general. No one gives Dr.Elmasry credit for the tremendous contributions he has made to Canadain the past 30 years. He has trained hundreds of graduate students inthe high tech industry and made huge contributions to scientificknowledge through his research. This in turn has helped boosteCanada's contributions in the high tech industry and created wellpaying jobs. But no, this wont be mentioned because the media would beforced to give a Muslim some credit instead of continually labelingthem as some fifth column, like this fanantic website does:http://www.canadiancoalition.org/

Also, the media gives a lot of attention to a Tarek Fatah in Torontoand his Canadian Muslim Congress, whose membership could fit into aphone booth, because this former communist back in Pakistan and nowgay-rights defender spends all of his energy attacking the Muslimcommunity. The man is almost universally despised even by progressiveleftists who are non Muslim, not to mention the feelings of antipathyMuslims here in Canada have towards him. I called him one time to tellhim I disagreed with something he said and he launched into a tiradeabout me supporting Taliban. This is what he does all the time -accusses people with no evidence and he gets off with it. I cannotunderstand why he is taken seriously by the media. He has no abililtyat all to read the pulse of the Muslim community here in Canada.

But do any of these views get published or mentioned elsewhere? No!The media is more interested in the statements or positions of onesingle person. This is unfair and dishonest reporting and does notreflect the reality or the diversity of what our community is.

There are radical extremists out there who want to foment conflicthatred. Dr. Elmasry is not one of them regardless of what you think. Inever read anything in your columns regarding the daily injustices andhumiliations of the Palestinian people, as documented by numeroushuman rights organizations, at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.Are the people children of a lesser god?

When you know the political background on Flemming Rose, and there arenumerous articles on this topic, you will know what his motivationswere on publishing those cartoons. Is this what we want? They use thepre-existing Islamaphobia in the west to create further conflict. Onecan cry freedom, but will this freedom, when it is used to defameothers, serve the good of humanity?

Here is an interesting article in yesterday's Globe and Mail on thehistory of political cartoons in Canada:

I can understand that radicals like Tarek Fatah and Irshad Manji do not speak for many Muslims. What alarms me is that no one in the Muslim community, has, to my knowledge, spoken out publicly in support of Prof. Salim Mansur, a genuine Muslim democrat. Has your news organization ever given him an opportunity to express his views?

You wrote:

You seem to have left the impression that Dr. Elmsary (sic) is thepersonification of the Muslim community here in Canada and that hisviews on one issue categorize or label him in all other issues alsoand, by extension, the Muslim community in general.

Yet your editorial on Feb. 17 states the following with regard to the infamous Imam Qureshi:

"He certainly does not speak for me or anyone I know and respect," stated CIC national president Dr. Mohamed Elmasry earlier today in a press release.Elmasry further stated that: "What has been said and done by this irresponsible individual is totally against the teachings of the Qur'an, which condemns the taking of human lives. On behalf of all Canadian Muslims, the CIC repudiates and utterly rejects any call for death or injury to those charged with insulting our faith. Only God is ultimate arbiter and judge of those who do wrong."

With this report, you have confirmed my impression that Dr. Elmasry is a prominent leader among Muslims in Canada who heads an organization that purports, albeit falsely, to speak "on behalf of all Canadian Muslims." Do you disagree with any of his controversial statements that I cited in the column? Am I wrong to conclude that most Canadian Muslims either support the viewpoint expressed in those statements or are loath to express their criticism of Elmasry in public?

Rory

Rahman's evasive response:

I honestly don't think there is any group or organization that speaksfor every single Muslim either in Canada or the world. I don't thinkeven Dr. Elmasry or CAIR-CAN has ever made that claim aboutthemselves. I know the media would like to find such a group so theycan then tag our community down, but it is not going to happen in myor your lifetime. We are just too diverse. CIC, CAIR-CAN and othergroups have levels of support and we post their communiques, but thereare others in our community who do not like their approach at all. Wehave people, like myself, who are very leftist in orientation, whileothers are more right-wing and actually supported Harper for PM. Youhave got to remember, our community consists of people from well overa hundred different nations speaking numerous languages and variouslevels of education background and political involvement. Most Muslimsin Canada I know are not even interested in politics other thandiscussing it in passing and then moving on to other issues. Ifanything, there is a general political apathy in our community, muchlike the general population. (I think the only exception tot his wouldbe the Palestinians who are always active. I have never witnessedanything like these people.) In short, we are not that much differentfrom the wider society except for a few superficial things like dress,food etc. We want t good and peaceful life like all other Canadiansbut continually feel the sting of collective blame when some Muslimscommit misdeeds or utter an inappropriate statement. We always feelpressured to isse statements of comdemnation even though we havenothing to do with what those people or groups did. If we say nothingthen this means we support them and are, by extension, guilty. Noother group is singled out this way like we are. I am sure not everysingle Christian is responsible for this:

At this point, having repeatedly failed to draw out Yahya's views on Elmasry, I gave up. Meer Sahib is a prominent Muslim in London, Ontario, and a former member of the board of The London Muslim Mosque. Judging from his latest article in The Montreal Muslim News, you can well imagine the opinion he holds of my courageous Muslim friend, Prof. Salim Mansur:

Most of us realize that the Sept 11 Attack, blamed on Arabs, was the beginning of the “Muslim Holocaust”. The Western governments, manipulated by the Zionists, have used this pretext to murder hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Muslims, destroy those nations, take control of their resources and build military bases there. Many Arabs and Muslims in the West have been jailed and tortured and quite a few have died under torture. Draconian laws affecting Arabs and Muslims have also been enacted, and more are expected.

What have Muslims done to counteract this false allegation? Virtually nothing. But, fortunately, many westerners of conscience – scientists, professors, structural and aeronautical engineers, former fighter pilots, FBI veterans, journalists and so on, have gone through mountains of evidences and come to the conclusion that the 911 attack was not possible by Al-Qaeda, but could have been an ‘inside job’. For this, they provide logical, scientific, and engineering based proofs, which no person of intellect can deny. In a way, it is good that this work is being done by non-Muslims, as Western masses are likely to accept their findings more readily. These researchers have written many books, set up websites and produced documentaries with visual and sound effects, and conducted numerous lectures, conferences and so on.

There are also some Christians who have taken the troubles to distribute these documentaries (DVDs) free of charge by mail. Shouldn’t we admire them for their commitment to truth? This is indeed a noble act by them, but where are we Muslims? The least we can do is to disseminate the knowledge, so that more and more people will come to know the truth and insha Allah, one day, the real perpetrators may be caught. To my great distress, I find the vast majority of Muslims continue to believe the US administration’s 911 story. They are then taken by surprise when they see the facts presented in these documentaries – for example the BBC documentary (listed below) proves that Al-Qaeda is a non-existent, phantom, imaginary enemy, invented by the Neo-cons, and, the documentary “In Plane Site” proves that the Pentagon was NOT hit by a 747 and so on. These documentaries also ask numerous questions on the US Administration’s 911 story, to which no answers have been provided by the government.

I was very pleased to see a good number of brothers and sisters who were impressed by the documentaries, purchasing several copies to send them to their loved ones back home.

Brothers and sisters, let us make this our personal jihad – the jihad of Education. I have spent hundreds of hours collecting valuable data, learned the computer programs which helps me produce DVDs using such data, editing, and putting them together, so that others don’t have to spend so much time to get these information.

The mainstream media has hidden this information from the masses. Therefore, it is our duty to make this information available to Muslims and non-Muslims. Here is how YOU can help:

Obtain these videos, choose the ones you like, copy and mail them to prominent members of your city – this could be the MPPs, MPs, City Councillors, priests, librarians, school teachers, colleges, newspaper editors, columnists, radio and TV broadcasters, police chiefs, and so on. Students can share the information with fellow students.

Encourage your friends and relatives to join you in this effort, so that they too feel proud to fulfill their duty.

Always send a short note, as people do not like to receive anything anonymous. You can include a note like this : “Dear friend: In modern history, there has been nothing as profound as the September 11 Terror Attack, yet the media has not informed us the truth nor done its duty to ask probing questions to uncover the facts. I hope you will find the enclosed DVDs helpful in unravelling the mystery surrounding the 911 Attack. Your fellow citizen (your name).

I recommend item GC-1 to be one of the DVDs you mail, as this was authored by a well respected Canadian journalist, Mr. Barry Zwicker. I have an ‘honor-based’ agreement with him to mail him $10 for every DVD copied (originals sell for $35). So, please send him $10.00 for each copy you may sell. His em address is: bwz@rogers.com

To cover the cost of production, please enclose a donation of $5 for each DVD you order ($10 for item GC-1).

For those of you who cannot afford to make the donation, but are willing to make copies and mail to prominent people, I will mail the DVDs free of charge.

Brothers and Sisters, we cannot bury our heads in the sand and hope the problem would go away. It is time that EACH ONE of us did something concrete. Don’t expect others to do your job. If we failed, it will be only ourselves to blame, when matters get worse. Believe me, things are likely to get much worse.